Matriarchitecture

This is a "think piece" written for the Systems Thinking issue of MK{ink}, a monthly magazine published by MKThink, for which I also served as editor-in-chief.

“The straight line is godless and immoral,” [1] professed the artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. A forerunner of environmentalism, he denounced the "dictate of geometrical straight lines and sterile grid systems that hurt nature and man” [2] and “lead to the downfall of humanity.” [3]  He championed for life in harmony with the laws of nature and its “non-regulated irregularities”. [4]

We have science to blame for this dictate. The theories of Galileo, Darwin, and Newton, among others, advanced a “non-living, coldly mechanical model of the universe” and presented life as a linear process of decay”. This mechanical worldview took hold of the collective conscience and replaced the “’hypothesis’ of God” and “any notion of Nature” with the drive for technological progress and material prosperity. [5]

Modern architecture, with its straight lines and grid systems, mirrors this mechanical worldview. Skyscrapers and bridges exemplify it best. Their structures impose upon the natural landscape with sharp lines that clearly demarcate the man-made from the natural world. Temples to technology and industry, they represent the triumph of science and commerce over Nature and God.

Case in point, the Brooklyn Bridge. It “was made of physics [and] embodied a literal and genuinely religious leap of faith in 19th century American engineering”. [6] Built in 1883, it marked the beginning of an era in which the most monumental structures were commercial, not religious. Spanning the East River to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge made New York City the most significant commercial center in the United States, and ultimately the world.

A Darwinian competition in New York for the title of "world's tallest building" gave rise to the Empire State Building. Owing to the support of 3-D grid systems of steel columns and beams and the financing of Pierre du Pont, it reached the winning height and held the title for 42 years. The building’s name alludes to New York State’s empire-worthy wealth and (exploitable) natural resources. Survival of the fittest, technological progress, and industry incarnate. 

Before “science was raised to the status of a secular priesthood”, early civilizations formed their mental models of the universe from revelation not research. [7] They held cyclical worldviews, rooted in the natural world and its circadian and seasonal rhythms. The central role that woman played in reproduction inspired a belief in the divine feminine and the worship of mother goddesses who personified nature, fertility, and creation.

Brooklyn Bridge showing painters on suspenders. Brooklyn, NY. Eugene de Salignac, 1914.

Prehistoric architecture embodies the regenerative ideals of nature and the divine feminine. Structures simulate the curved lines of organic and feminine forms. The Megalithic Temples of Malta feature womb-like entrances and chambers that are reminiscent of the birth canal. Burial mounds in England, dating from 4000 BC, follow the contours of the female physique. Stonehenge is both an architectural homage to, and an observatory of, the cycles of the sun and the moon.

Stonehenge Under the Stars. Wiltshire, England. ©Robert Harvey 2011.

Recent architecture has seen the return of feminine and organic forms in buildings with fluid features that rebel against the “dictate of straight lines”. Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Sciences resembles the round burial mounds found in many early civilizations.

California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA©Tim Griffith 2008

Hopewell Mound City Site (200 BC to AD 500), Ohio River Valley.

Foster + Partners’ Virgin Galactic Terminal at Spaceport America exudes femininity with soft contours that blend seamlessly into the surrounding landscape. The building calls to mind the natural landscapes and feminine symbology in the art of Georgia O’Keefe. And like the Megalithic Temples of Malta, its entrance is through a womb-like “gorge cut from the building’s circular ellipse.” [8] 

Virgin Galactic Terminal, Truth or Consequences, NM. ©Foster + Partners 2010.

Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, Malta. (Bronze Age 4000BC and 2500 BC).

Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, Malta. (Bronze Age 4000BC and 2500 BC).

Virgin Galactic Terminal, Truth or Consequences, NM. ©Foster + Partners 2010.

Virgin Galactic Terminal, Truth or Consequences, NM. ©Foster + Partners 2010.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV, Georgia O'Keeffe 1930

Virgin Galactic Terminal, Truth or Consequences, NM. ©Foster + Partners 2010.

These buildings are feminine not only in form but also in their functional imitation of (Mother) Nature. They are living systems, “intelligently designed” to naturally regulate temperature, filter water and air, and generate energy. They are models of green building: The California Academy of Sciences is LEED Platinum, the Virgin Galactic Terminal, LEED Gold.

Green building is in essence the architectural practice of spiritual ecology—the field that joins ecology and environmentalism with the awareness of the sacred within creation. Spiritual ecology, long practiced by indigenous peoples, is a response to the environmental crisis. It calls for a reexamination of our mechanistic worldview and a spiritual reconnection to nature. [9] While green building may emphasize science and engineering, it tacitly acknowledges the sacred in its imitation of nature’s design.

MKThink’s “informed creativity” is also spiritual ecology in practice. It unifies data and the spiritual nature of creativity. In its architectural work, MKThink considers the building's connection to the environment and by extension that of its human users. The Harmony Building is one example. It mimics the Ohio River Bluffs with engineering systems that emulate the watershed system, which naturally filters water and air. The biomimicry of the building connects the urban citizens of Louisville to Kentucky’s natural landscape.

The Ohio River Bluffs run along the 981-mile Ohio River, which flows through six states and is the source of drinking water for more than five million people.

The Harmony Building, a model of biomimicry, is the anchor of a new eco-district in Louisville, Kentucky. An initiative of Kentucky Promise, the district will revitalize an obsolete manufacturing district.

In the design of workplaces, MKThink replaces the grid systems of cubicle farms with layouts that adapt to the rhythms of the workday. These fluid configurations are spatially matriarchal and nurture a professional ecosystem that values collaboration over competition and flat organizational structure over hierarchy. These layouts reflect the increasing shift in business from aggressive, linear competition to the virtuous cycles of cooperation found in natural ecosystems. Hundertwasser would no doubt endorse spiritual ecology and MKThink’s own “informed creativity,” for these practices are realizing his vision of a cyclical and “stable relationship between man, the built world and nature”.